The invention relates to a recording and/or reproducing apparatus for a record carrier in tape form which is housed in a cassette. The cassette can be inserted into the apparatus and has two adjacent, rotatingly drivable hubs for the same, with rotatingly drivable winding spindles, which can be brought into drive connection with the hubs through at least a first main wall of the cassette for driving of the hubs. The apparatus has a cassette holder, which can be swivelled about a swivel axis, and is essentially designed in tray form and can be swivelled between a load position, which a cassette with a first side wall forwards can be introduced into the cassette holder as an far as introduction position fixed by at least one limiting stop provided on the cassette holder, and an operating position, in which a cassette introduced into the cassette holder assumes an operating position in which the winding spindles are in drive connection with the hubs. The apparatus also has at least one spring-loaded pressure mechanism which, with the cassette holder in its load position, is located outside the introduction area of a cassette and which, during swivelling of the cassette holder into its operating position, comes into active connection with a cassette introduced into the holder. The pressure mechanism acts with at least one point of contact located in the area of the side wall opposite the first side wall, and presses the cassette under the action of the spring acting on the pressure mechanism towards the limiting stop.
Such an apparatus is known from Austrian Patent Specification No. 298,104. In the case of this known apparatus, the pressure mechanism is arranged fixedly within the apparatus, coming into active connection with a cassette introduced into the cassette holder during the swivelling of the cassette into its operating position only immediately before the cassette reaches its operating position. If, in the case of this known apparatus, a cassette is not introduced into the cassette holder by the user properly as far as the introduction position fixed here by two limiting stops on the cassette holder, which can happen for example under unfavorable friction conditions by catching of the cassette, during swivelling of the not properly introduced cassette into its operating position, problems can occur during entry into the cassette of the winding spindles provided for driving the two hubs, because this entry of the two winding spindles already takes place at a time at which the pressure mechanism is not yet interacting with the cassette and the cassette is therefore not yet pressed into its introduction position in the cassette holder and held in the same.
If a cassette has not been properly introduced into its introduction position in the cassette holder, it may even happen that the cassette pushes against the winding spindles with its first main wall, through which the winding spindles can be brought into drive connection with the hubs, the cassette then not being swivelled into its operating position and it therefore not being possible to put the apparatus into operation.
Furthermore, with the known apparatus, the fixedly arranged pressure mechanism comes abruptly into active connection with a cassette introduced into the cassette holder, which may be found disturbing in the manual adjustment of the cassette holder by the user since a resistance is suddenly felt in the movement sequence and this can also lead to an increased wear of both the pressure mechanism and of the cassette.